Blocking reproductive choice violates religious tenets

HOWARD LIPIN SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE/ZUMA PRESS

ENCINITAS, FEB.10, 2017 | Supporters of Planned Parenthood held the "Defend Planned Parenthood" march," as part of nationwide rallies and marches. The organization is facing scrutiny under President Donald Trump and a Republican Congress, which may result in defunding.

ENCINITAS, FEB.10, 2017 | Supporters of Planned Parenthood held the "Defend Planned Parenthood" march," as part of nationwide rallies and marches. The organization is facing scrutiny under President Donald Trump and a Republican Congress, which may result in defunding. (HOWARD LIPIN SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE/ZUMA PRESS)

MADISON T. SHOCKLEY II, KATHLEEN OWENS, TONYA HARRIS & DAVID FRANK

Planned Parenthood of America is under attack by the newly elected Congress. Last month, Rep. Diane Black, R-Tennessee, reintroduced HR 354, the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2017. The difference between this introduction and all the previous ones is that now there is a president who has pledged to sign the bill. On the Saturday following the Friday that Donald Trump took his oath of office, hundreds of thousands of women (and girls and boys and men) converged on Washington, D.C., and millions marched across the United States and around the world to stand up for women’s rights, including the right of women to make their own reproductive health care decisions.

We are now in a struggle for the future of women’s rights. The president has taken his oath, but all Americans have made a pledge, “One nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.” This is our pledge, enshrined by our Congress and emblematic of our national values. Despite the deep fractures that have surfaced during our recent election, these core values remain constant and strong. One of these core values is the right of all people to determine their own reproductive lives; to decide for themselves when, whether and how many children to bear. Each person should be able to access any and all health services in fulfillment of their reproductive decisions.

We are one nation, even when it does not feel like it. We are guided by divine providence, even as we hear God’s voice differently. And the hands of liberty and justice are extended to all those within our borders, including those of differing religions, races, economic status, gender, and sexual orientation.

Extreme conservative religious voices have dominated our national conversation surrounding abortion but they are by no means the singular, nor even the majority, religious voice in America.

Now that the anti-abortion religious right has the support of President Trump, it is crucial that other religious views be heard now. As clergy, we believe that abortion is a personal decision dictated by one’s conscience and faith. In Jewish law, there are clear circumstances that permit abortion, and many Christians find no prohibition against abortion anywhere in their texts and find support for abortion in Christian ethics. Therefore, any law that would seek to preclude full reproductive choice to women is a violation of our religious tenets.

Republicans in Congress want to defund Planned Parenthood of America. The reality is that most federal monies fund the patients through Medicaid, not the clinics directly. The proposed legislation would defund the 2.7 million women and men who receive contraceptive services, STI screenings, mammograms and other basic health care from Planned Parenthood clinics. These clinics served them in otherwise underserved areas of this country. As faith leaders, we cannot allow this to happen. We cannot allow women to be degraded, deprived of their fundamental freedoms, and their lives and health to be put at risk.

This is not only a political question but a question faced by real people in real time. Right now, as record numbers sign up and renew their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, patients are concerned whether or not they will be able to receive the lifesaving care that they now enjoy.

Many women are making decisions about their reproductive health care based on the economics of contraceptive options. Women who normally use daily contraception are opting for the long-acting intrauterine device (IUD). They may not be making this choice for medical reasons but because they fear losing contraceptive coverage with the defunding of Planned Parenthood and the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. This is wrong. Health care decisions should be made for health reasons alone.

We are one nation under God, but not one voice or one religious view. As a new political reality forms, we must protect our cherished religious freedoms, ensuring women’s rights to reproductive justice, and reflecting the image of God in each of us by respecting our differences and the liberty to act upon them. Another core American value is expressed in our national motto, “E Pluribus Unum” (from many, one). So let our many varied faiths find their freedom of expression in this one land that we all love.

Shockley is pastor, Pilgrim United Church of Christ; Owens is pastor, First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego; Harris is pastor, North Coast United Methodist Church in Oceanside; Frank is rabbi of Temple Solel in Cardiff-by-the-Sea. They are part of Faith Leaders for Reproductive Justice, a group of San Diego County clergy which supports the right of every person to make their own reproductive health decisions according to their own religious beliefs.